Thursday, July 30, 2009

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Pat from The Weaver of Grass is hosting Inspiration Wednesday today. Paticipants are posting about what is inspiring to them. According to Pat "your inspiration can be picture or painter, poem or poet, animal or bird, book or author, teacher, relative, friend, statesman, absolutely anything that "turns you on" artistically or otherwise." Click here to be taken to the list of participants. Yes!! More blogs to visit!!

For me, inspiration comes in many forms. From objects. From experiences. From memories. From concepts. From people. From places.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Couldn't resist choosing this title for this post!! I want to thank everybody who made the Buried Treasure online collaboration such a success. I keep hearing that people are still trying to catch up with all the links. I think both the bloggers who posted and the readers who were treated to so many "best of posts" all got to take away something special from this project. So advance notice...come back next year when we will do it all again.

Meanwhile, a number of links were inadvertently left out of the original list. They have since been added but I want to highlight them here so everybody has a chance to see their favorites!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Okay. I know that two days of Buried Treasure in one week and over 140 posts to explore have kept a lot of people in their chairs, out of their studio, and maybe even out of the office! That being said and understood, I still feel compelled to tell you about another online collaborative project I happened upon that may mean you will not leave the computer until August, at the earliest!

I found out from Kathryn of KV Creative Designs that Karen Valentine from My Desert Cottage is sponsoring an event called Where Bloggers Create. Participants are posting videos, pictures, and/or descriptions of their studio spaces. And who doesn't want to be invited into the very places where the magic happens.

You can read more about it in this post here but you will really want to head to Karen's sidebar and click on the more than 135 links to see the posts. Just don't forget to eat! And have a good weekend.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Digging for gold! Again! This post is my contribution to the second round of the Buried Treasure collaboration. Links to each and every participating artist can be found in the previous post on my blog.

It is all about layers. I wanted to Dig Deeper for my second Buried Treasure post. On the surface, my blog highlights my mixed media artwork. But if you look a little further, you will find posts spotlighting my photography, poetry, drawing, travel adventures, and the like. Look just a little bit deeper, and you will find posts about other artists, other blogs, and links I love. It is all about layers.

In my first Buried Treasure post, I focused on my mixed media artwork. In this "re=post" I have captured some of my favorite things from previous posts that focus on everything else! There are links to follow, videos to watch, and images to enlarge. Happy hunting!

Welcome to Buried Treasure - Round 2: an online, collaborative project that invites art bloggers to go into the depths of their blogs and dig for buried treasure. Each participant was asked to repost one (or more) or their favorite posts from their own blog. There are so many brilliant artists out there but so little time to explore all their work fully. This gives us all an opportunity to see highlights from posts we may have missed along the way!

Click on the links below to go to the blogs of the participants. As I catch up with all the posts one by one, the links will be updated to take you directly to the repost. If you are a blogger who has gone digging for gold and you do not find your name on the list, please email me and I will add your link. Please note that soon these links will be transferred to the sidebar of my blog and will always be easily accessible!

Thanks go out to all the participants and to each and every person viewing these posts. Don't forget to leave your comments. And have the best time on your treasure hunt!!

Friday, July 17, 2009

I want to thank everybody who was a part of Buried Treasure: both the bloggers who re-posted their personal favorites and all those art lovers who continue to log on, link in, and leave comments.

The feedback I received so far has been so positive. The first group I heard from were blog readers who enjoyed both being introduced to new artists and seeing previously missed posts from their favorite bloggers. The second group I heard from were participating bloggers, many of whom found this process to be unexpectedly insightful and memorable. Many artists, including myself, said that the process of looking through their older posts helped them to recognize distinct changes in their artistic style, direction, and maturity. The third group I heard from were bloggers who had missed the original call for collaborative participants. They were not as happy. But to these people and to all others I say...

DIG DEEPER! I have decided to extend this collaboration for one more round. On Thursday July 23, there will be one more opportunity for you to re-post a favorite blog post as part of the Buried Treasure collaboration. Everybody is welcome to participate -- those who missed the first go round and those who have already re-posted but have just one more post they want to highlight. Please leave a comment on this post or email me by Tuesday July 21 if you would like to participate. Then on July 23, I will post a list of all participating artists and their links. Hope to see as many collaborators as possible!!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Digging for gold! This post is my contribution to the Buried Treasure collaboration. Links to each and every participating artist can be found in the previous post on my blog.

My post for the Buried Treasure collaboration is a modification of a blog post from early 2008. There are several reasons why I chose this particular artwork to highlight again. The text from my original blog post reads as follows:

"Revolution -- The act of revolving or turning round on an axis...a far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behavior...a cycle of events in time...the motion of an object round a fixed point or line. This revolution is complete. I have enjoyed the challenge of working on such small canvases (3 1/2" x 2 1/2") and in a way that is new for me -- quickly and with limited evaluation along the way. Art imitates life. Some of the pieces focused on very specific ideas, emotions, or issues. Some were not preplanned but rather were driven by the materials used and evolved in the making. All represent a personal revolution in my thinking about art in general and my own personal process of creating in particular. Each is a piece of me."

Now that some time has passed since I created Revolution, I do see this artwork as the start of a significant change in my approach to art and in my own view of myself as an artist. More layered. More textured. More intuitive. More personal. And this project was about experimentation. And play. And stretching myself. And exploring. And expressing. And isn't that what art is all about!

"You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right"